Britain will raise alcohol duty on February 1, 2027, adding up to 15p to a bottle of wine

Britain’s latest Budget will raise alcohol duty again from February 1, 2027, adding between 11p and 15p in tax to a standard bottle of wine depending on its strength, while a typical bottle of gin or Scotch whisky will carry about 43p more duty.

The new rates were published by HM Revenue & Customs after the Autumn Budget on Monday, November 2. They affect wine, beer and spirits under the U.K.’s alcohol-by-strength system, which taxes drinks according to the amount of pure alcohol they contain. That means stronger products will see larger increases even when they are sold in the same size bottle.

For wine between 8.5% and 22% ABV, duty will rise from £30.62 to £32.01 per liter of pure alcohol, an increase of about 4.5%. On a standard 75cl bottle, HMRC’s rates mean an 11% wine will go from £2.53 in duty to £2.64, a rise of 11p. A 12.5% bottle will move from £2.87 to £3.00, up 13p. A 13.5% bottle will rise from £3.10 to £3.24, or 14p. A 14.5% bottle will increase from £3.33 to £3.48, or 15p.

The government’s figures refer to duty, not final shelf prices. Retailers, importers and producers can absorb part of the increase or pass it on to shoppers. The final price can also rise by more than the duty increase because value-added tax is charged on the selling price, including duty. If the full increase is passed through and VAT is added at 20%, a 12.5% bottle of wine could end up costing about 16p more.

The rise matters beyond British shoppers. The U.K. is a major market for imported wine, and the new duty adds pressure on pricing, margins and demand for producers and exporters selling into Britain. Because higher-alcohol wines face larger duty increases, the system may weigh more heavily on bottles from warmer wine regions that naturally produce higher ABV levels.

Spirits will also be affected. Duty on products above 22% ABV will rise from £33.99 to £35.54 per liter of pure alcohol. On a standard 70cl bottle of gin or Scotch whisky at 40% ABV, that works out to an additional 43.4p in duty, taking the total duty burden from about £9.52 to £9.95. A 43% spirit in the same bottle size will attract an extra 46.7p.

If the full duty increase on a 40% bottle is passed on to consumers and VAT is applied, the final price could rise by about 52p. That would come on top of any other increases linked to production, energy, transport, wages or distribution.

Beer will see a smaller increase in cash terms, though pubs and brewers will still feel the change. Standard duty on beer between 3.5% and 8.5% ABV will rise from £22.58 to £23.61 per liter of pure alcohol. For a 568ml pint at 4.5% ABV, that adds 2.63p in duty, or roughly 3p.

Qualifying draught beer will continue to receive a lower rate than packaged products. That reduced duty rate will rise from £19.45 to £20.34 per liter of pure alcohol, which adds about 2.27p to the duty on a 4.5% pint. The difference is important for pubs, where cask and keg products that qualify for draught relief are taxed less heavily than the same beer sold in cans or bottles.

Business groups in the drinks sector criticized the increase. The Scotch Whisky Association said it was the fourth straight rise in spirits duty. Its chief executive, Mark Kent, said the change would push the tax burden on the average bottle of Scotch whisky to 74%.

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association had called for a freeze before the Budget and also objected to the decision. Its chief executive, Miles Beale, said the government had added another increase at a time when companies were already dealing with inflation and pressure on household budgets.

The Budget did include support measures elsewhere for hospitality. The government announced additional business rates relief for qualifying pubs, social clubs and live music venues in England, and it also set out changes to Small Producer Relief. Even so, the new duty rates mean alcohol sellers will enter 2027 with a higher tax bill across much of the market.

For wine merchants in particular, the structure of the increase reinforces a problem that has grown since Britain moved to a more detailed strength-based system: two bottles of wine in the same format can now face noticeably different tax depending only on alcohol content. That can complicate pricing, stock decisions and promotional planning for supermarkets, independent retailers, restaurants and importers, especially in a market where even small increases can influence consumer demand.